Thursday, July 31, 2014

Feast of St. Ignatius of Loyola - why we were created

Today is the Feast day of St. Ignatius of Loyola.

Here is Fr. Dennis Homily on this great Saint. The pictures were taken in Ireland.

Below is the Principal and Foundation by St. Ignatius that Fr. Dennis reads at Mass. It is from the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius.

PRINCIPLE AND FOUNDATION
Human beings are created to praise, reverence, and serve God our Lord, and by means of doing this to save their souls. 
The other things on the face of the earth are created for the human beings, to help them in the pursuit of the end for which they are created. 
From this it follows that we ought to use these things to the extent that they help us toward our end, and free ourselves from them to the extent that they hinder us from it. 
To attain this it is necessary to make ourselves indifferent to all created things, in regard to everything which is left to our free will and is not forbidden. Consequently, on our own part we ought not to seek health rather than sickness, wealth rather than poverty, honor rather than dishonor, a long life rather than a short one, and so on in all other matters.  
Rather, we ought to desire and choose only that which is more conducive to the end for which we are created.

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